jeanetics17

Likely next Monday or Tuesday. Last year, we received notice of admission roughly 9-10 days after the last day of the interview weekend. You may receive a phone call from a faculty member (potentially earlier), just a letter, or both.

Not sure if this helps, but MIT Biology's most recent class (2017 Matrics) is about 30 people, while comparably, Harvard BBS is 64. However, I don't have a sense of the matriculation rates. Most students that interview with BBS get an offer, while far less are likely to get an offer by MIT. MIT Bio is definitely one of the hardest programs to get an acceptance from, in large part because they do like to keep their class sizes small as well as they scrutiny by which they evaluate your academic record (which they attribute as a prognostic about how you'll handle their rigorous coursework).

Congratulations to anyone who received a Harvard BBS interview. We look forward to meeting you!

Congrats! Penn is a great school with lots of great faculty. The CAMB students receive really good training and mentoring. Was my 2nd choice.

Harvard BBS

What they said. You can anticipate receiving the NSF stipend amount, and if it is greater than your school's stipend, you will be receiving more than your peers. (i.e. 30,000 vs 34,000). If you receive multiple fellowships, then you can segment them to cover you through different times on your grad school tenure. I also don't know about the other two (learning also).

I have attached two documents. One is a rubric that helps breakdown how statements are evaluated and scored (rubric) and the other is a general list of questions that reviewers typically have and are looking for you to answer. NSF GRFP Review Questions.pdf NSF GRFP example Rubric.pdf

How is that possible?

Reviews - VG/VG, E/VG, E/E.

I applied to Life Sciences - Genetics.

I got the award! I'm speechless. I haven't looked at the reviews, nothing in the world matters! lol

Yes!

I'll be there as well.

Congrats! I received my official BBS acceptance as well today and I've accepted! Feels good to be done with this exhausting process.

Sorry that this happened to you. The same exact thing happened to me last year. They rejected my application because they felt my research statement was too disease related; although I beg to differ. That's why people suggest never using the word disease and being careful with your words. It just sucks that you put all of that time and effort into it and you don't even get feedback. It's also ironic -- I find -- because they preach that they are funding individuals and not research. You're not even legally bound to do the project you propose. I don't think they do a good job with examining a proposal that is basic science (but inspired by a disease). Or alternatively they could be more transparent with what is acceptable or how they screen and ultimately flag proposals (is it reviewed by multiple people before rejected?). But it is what it is. This year I completely scrapped last years project/idea/field and wrote about something I knew they wouldn't have a problem with.

One thing that helped me was doing as many full length practice exams as I could. This helped me work on focus, time management, strategy, and approach which are important factors not often stressed. You need a game plan in addition to knowledge to be an effective GRE taker. The GRE website has practice exams that you can download and use to simulate testing conditions and the computer based test. I found that the score I got from the simulator was scarily accurate for the real test.

Congrats!!!

If you are science this is my opinion: In my experience, GRE scores matter for some schools and don't matter for others. Even for some schools, you can have both a low GRE score and GPA and still be admitted. So some schools will use it as a screening tool and others will read your application regardless. Most importantly is to have high quality research experience and outstanding letters of recommendation. It's all about selling yourself and highlighting your "relevant" strengths.

I'm excited. This was my top choice program long before I even started applying to schools, and the interview weekend just solidified it. This seems so surreal. Excited to get started there with everyone!

just received my acceptance via email! good luck friends.

Wow. Congrats then! Waiting patiently...

Sweating bullets. Unless you're trolling.

Yeah alternative to my theory above is that nothing is changing and they're really just busy with prep for the 2nd interview and other stuff; and haven't gotten around to making a decision yet. But based on previous years, I did expect to hear back by now. So I'm confused and don't know what they're doing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Maybe they're adjusting how many people they admit this year based on last year's results which they told us was a very big class (~70-75). Since so many people accepted last year, they probably think a similar trend will occur this year, and of course those are huge numbers in terms of cost for the program. When we didn't hear back last week, I suspected something was up and perhaps (I suspect) the 1st group of interviewees won't hear back until after the 2nd interview. Basically, I think they are going to pool all interviewees and cut from that instead of each weekend (reducing the amount accepted in total).

Just based on student accounts on the turn around and the previous years timeline.